(Dichloromethyl) substituted pyridines are known compounds which find utility as pesticides for the control of plant, insect and fungal pests, among others, and as intermediates for preparing compounds having the above utilities. Representative patents which teach such uses include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,420,833; 3,591,596; 4,062,962 and 4,143,144.
(Dichloromethyl) substituted pyridines have been prepared from (trichloromethyl) substituted pyridines by a variety of procedures. A few of these procedures include, for example, dehydrochlorination over a palladium catalyst in the presence of formic acid, electrolytic reduction, reductions employing either zinc or stannous chloride with hydrochloric acid and the like. The prior processes, while producing the desired product, have not found wide success because of one or more shortcomings such as expense of reagents, slow reaction rate, poor selectivity to the desired product or the difficulty in treating waste streams for recycle and/or disposal.